and on the west the dining hall and billiard-rooms.
Store-rooms, pantries, and all necessary accommodation were supplied as
in any of our home mansions.

The ground floor of the building is raised four feet from the plateau,
and ample ventilation is provided underneath. The building is 230 ft. in
frontage, and 180 ft. in depth, and the height to the tower is 80 ft.
The style is Ionic upon Doric, with Corinthian pillars and pilasters to
the tower. It is roofed with slates, and the lower floors and verandahs
are paved with marble.

As at the cathedral training for the convicts, so here models of the
pillars and capitals were made on the ground for them to copy, and the
special bricks for mouldings, copings, architraves, and capitals were
made at the convict brick kilns.[13] The plaster work for the exterior
walls was a subject of much consideration with us; and, after various
experiments, we arrived at the following composition, and it has
thoroughly withstood the weather, which, under the trying circumstances
of a rapid succession of damp and heat, was exceptional in that
climate:--

Portland cement 2 parts. }
} Carefully and
White selected sand 1 part. } slowly mixed
} by the
Granite powdered to } } convicts.
dust in small } 2 parts. }
handmills, or } }
querns } }

[Footnote 13: All taught by ourselves to the convicts, with the
assistance of Overseer Callcott, now risen to be Deputy
Colonial Engineer.]

A gift by the Chinese community of a statue of H.M. the Queen was
unveiled with some ceremony at this Government House in the year 1889.

INDUSTRIES (INTRA-MURAL).

We have already enumerated the various trades that were taught to these
Indian convicts, and shall therefore confine our remarks here to a brief
description of some of those productive occupations upon which we
employed their labour both within and without the main jail.

We must, however, make known beforehand, in connection with intra-mural
works, that, attached to the main jail, yet distinctly separated from it
by high walls and a guarded gateway, was a "work-yard," in which were
built shops for carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, sawyers,
stone-cutters, and turners in wood and iron.

[Illustration: GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, COMPLETED.

_McNair._

_Plate XIX